The Supreme Court Collegium headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Wednesday recommended to the Centre the names of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court, and Justice S Venkatanarayana Bhatti, Chief Justice of Kerala High Court for elevation as the judges of the apex court. The Supreme Court has a sanctioned strength of 34 judges but is currently functioning with 31 after the retirement of three judges last month.

The revamped collegium having Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai and Surya Kant, took the decision in its first meeting on Wednesday. Justice Gavai and Justice Kant are the new entrants to the collegium.

Noting that the apex court has three vacancies, the collegium said it is imperative to take steps to fill them up with a view to augmenting the working judge-strength to take care of the backlog of cases and the large institution of fresh matters.  “The collegium deliberated on and discussed the names of Chief Justices and senior puisne Judges of the High Courts eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court.

“Judgments authored by those falling in the zone of consideration for elevation to the Supreme Court were circulated among the members of the Collegium, well in advance, for a meaningful discussion on and assessment of their judicial acumen.

The Centre for Research & Planning of the Supreme Court has prepared a compilation of relevant background material to assist the Collegium,” the resolution uploaded on the apex court website said.  Born on August 2, 1964, Justice Bhuyan was appointed as a judge of the Gauhati High Court on October 17, 2011, and is the senior-most judge of his parent High Court (Gauhati). He is serving as the chief justice of the Telangana High Court since June 28, 2022.

Justice Bhatti, who was born on May 6, 1962, was appointed as a judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on April 12, 2013 and is the senior-most in his parent High Court.

The collegium noted that the High Court of Andhra Pradesh does not have any representation on the Bench of the Supreme Court since August 2022.  Justice Bhatti was transferred to the High Court of Kerala in March 2019 and is serving as the Chief Justice there since June 1, 2023.